1318.000 Musa L. - Bananas

Herbs, perennial, tufted, underground stems (corms) rhizomatous, stoloniferous; stems remaining short until flowering; pseudo stems tall, clustered, each composed of closely packed leaf sheaths, base slightly swollen. Leaves large, oblong, un-lobed, splitting with age; petiole long, base enlarged into a sheath. Inflorescence solitary, terminal, erect or pendent, lax, not conical; bracts green, brown, red, dull purple or, rarely, yellow, usually deciduous. All flowers functionally sterile. Compound tepal tubular, soon splitting to base on 1 side, apex 5-toothed. Fruit berries, fleshy, cylindric, often elongate. Seeds numerous irregularly globose.

Derivation of name: Named for Antonius Musa, physician to Octavius Augustus, first emperor of Rome.

Worldwide: 63 species in Tanzania, tropical and sub-tropical Asia, West Pacific.

Zambia: 1 cultivated taxon.